http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/04/13/nintendo-discontinues-the-nes-classic-edition

“Throughout April, NOA territories will receive the last shipments of Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition systems for this year. We encourage anyone interested in obtaining this system to check with retail outlets regarding availability. We understand that it has been difficult for many consumers to find a system, and for that we apologize. We have paid close attention to consumer feedback, and we greatly appreciate the incredible level of consumer interest and support for this product.”

Nintendo continues to make really odd decisions that seem to make no sense. The demand is still high and I highly doubt they're costly to manufacture.

I feel sorry for anyone who still wants to get one. The scalpers will price gouge the hell out of the remaining stock.

Wow. Seems like there's still demand, so I'm surprised they're stopping now.

Another successful product got Nintendo'd. Not surprised.

Scalpers must be rejoicing.

they all said i was crazy for buying a framemeister

who's laughing now

I figure they're either converting the manufacturing lines to Switch or maybe prepping for a SNES classic? Either way if I had one of these unopened I'd buy one just to hang onto.

I wonder if this has anything to do with licensing of the non-first-party titles that were included. Perhaps Nintendo paid for licenses for X copies of each of them, with X equaling the number of NES Classics manufactured. They presumably could have paid additional licensing fees to cover the additional units manufactured, but at some point it may have been too costly or too much work to continue to do so, especially if there was not a clear estimation of possible sell-through on the systems. It's a bummer, because I wanted to get one, but I flat refuse to pay more than retail for it.

How is Nintendo run this poorly? They never met the demand for this thing once in its existence, and scalpers actually made more money off it than Nintendo did. Everyone involved with their logistics needs to be fired. Seriously. Clean house. Also, how in the hell did upper management just refuse to capitalize on this thing? They could have even jacked up the price when it became clear how much people wanted it. The abject failure to 1) get this thing on shelves from the start, 2) respond when it was crystal-clear that supply fell woefully short of demand, and 3) get it figured out for at least a little while before inexplicably abandoning it is truly baffling. This isn't even Business 101, it's common fucking sense.

I'm done with Nintendo. They are the most frustrating company. Every time I get excited about something they're doing, it proves to have some awful caveat. Their behavior defies logic. It's almost like they're trying to shoot themselves in the foot constantly. I want to walk into their board meeting and just slap everyone once and write "BUSINESSES SELL PRODUCTS" in giant letters on the wall. Fucking hell.

That's freakin' stupid.

They under produce the things people want...this, the 30th Anniversary Zelda amiibos...while every store has a rack full of Animal Crossing amiibos they can't move to save their life.

1. Managed to get my hands on a Famicom Mini. I don't speak Japanese

2. I imagine this will be a holiday only device.

3. Switch is great.

Remember when Nintendo pulled all 3ds' off shelves for a while because of the A9lh hack?

Guess what? You can now hack a nes classic and upload your ENTIRE collection of ill begotten nes roms to it. Its easy af.

I'm guessing nintendo does not want to continue to sell an emulator machine. Not when they can nickel and dime you by reselling virtual console games on the Switch.

@notnert427: Seeiously, what is going on in that company..

I doubt they'd say discontinued though - they could just say supply was changing and make a change to it.

Nintendo - "Please understand. We don't like money!"

I'm really disappointed. I was trying forever to get it as a gift for my brother and now I won't be able to get one without paying up on eBay. It's kind of lame, and I'm kind of upset, but I just want to get a Switch now. If it ever restocks.

Kinda glad I got one a few months ago before Christmas. Even though i've hardly done anything with it except take it out of the box and play a few games.

I've been wanting to hack it and just dump a bunch of roms on it for a while now. I'm kinda thinking about just putting it back in the box and selling it though. I could use the few hundred dollars someone would pay for it. Even though I think that's pretty scummy and I was cursing all the scalpers before Christmas who were doing just that. I actually probably won't, but it's an idea.

This is a bummer :( I really wanted one but they were never in stock *anywhere*. Looks like I'll never have one now ? This is confusing since they even acknowledge how much demand there is for it.

Maybe they'll release a new model that's less hackable.

Wow that sucks. I wanted to get one eventually, but it looks like I won't.

That really sucks, I was still hoping to get one.

This whole thing has been maddening. Nintendo botched this thing. Unbelievable.

When they announced this, they stated it was only a limited time thing. The only surprise to me here is that they're just now discontinuing it.

Ok.... Maybe Nintendo just wanted to look like they were doing stuff for their stockholders. I can't see what their intent with this system was.

i saw like three or four just fucking sitting there one day, too. was tempted, but then realized i would barely use the thing. kinda regret it now anyway.

they should make them a limited time item every holiday season, kinda like the mcrib. To cancel it completely is a shame.

Thank goodness they had the sense to discontinue a wildly popular, highly sought after product.

Don't worry guys, I'm sure they are working on a Nintendo-like solution.

I spent months trying to find one at MSRP for my wife as a late birthday present. Finally completely randomly I came across one on Prime Now, and ordered it immediately.

I gave it to her, and we set it up. She played Dr. Mario for 10 minutes, and it has never been touched again. I feel like many Christmas mornings were very similar, and some of those people paid a lot more than MSRP.

I never wanted one, but it sucks for the people that still call or come into my retail store every morning and ask if we have any in stock. We were getting maybe 2 or 3 a week during holiday and almost nothing now. I would say that burning your most passionate fans over and over would eventually lead to consequences, but Nintendo's been at it for a while.

I was lucky enough to get one with almost zero effort (just hit the Gamestop website at the right time).

They must have some weird contract thing that discourages them from keeping this going. I'd imagine they'll bring something like it (hopefully an SNES version) back for holiday 2017, even if only in the US (I'm sure at least Reggie understands it would sell like hotcakes).

TBH I don't think it really matters much in the grand scheme --- anybody who wants to play these games has multiple ways to do so that are more convenient than a dedicated box. So it's a neat-looking collectors item but not much more than that.

I've been eyeing up a Mega Drive Classic recently and, whilst I'd need to justify playing it, pulling this is a real shame for those that want legitimacy in their retro gaming at a fairer price. The cynic in me says they're gearing up for a big VC reveal but even that would be wishful thinking from a company that's struggled to sell its legacy right.

I figure this probably has something to do with the vulnerabilities in the system that let people pretty much load whatever games they wanted onto it right? Even if that's the case though, seems like a real bizarre thing to discontinue it entirely when it seems like demand was still high.

Nintendo, man, I love you but you're so weird

Well if Nintendo was worried the nes classic opened the door to emulation and roms, discontinuing a legitimate means of playing retro nes games probably makes that decision a lot easier for some folks...

I was lucky enough to get one on launch day, but I never got a second controller. (GameStop didn't have them on launch.) That's a big part of my frustration with this news now. I know there are tons of other options for controllers (and I have a Wii Classic Controller), but dang it, I wanted the thing to be "complete" with an authentic second controller. :/

Shit, that blows. It wasn't a perfect product but I still wanted to get one.

@rorie: Didn't actually think of scarcity of production, interesting idea.

Probably moving more manufacturing space to Switch for now. Hopefully they'll put a new version (maybe with more games?) sometime later. I'm waiting for a SNES one myself.

For those saying that they are shifting production to the Switch, how does that work? Can a production line for the NES Classic actually be retooled to produce the Switch? The products seem too different.

@aethelred: they are both just printed circuit assemblies in a plastic enclosure.

The pcbs go through a wave soldering or reflow process and then get assembled into the plastics. From a production standpoint, they are very similar.

I wanted one. I also want a Switch and would prefer to play those games on a Switch....if the Switch had a real fucking d-pad. I'm thinking of just going the raspberry pi route now. I'm sure there will be a million more internet walkthroughs for recreating the NES classic and more! now that this news is out.